Under the leadership of its former chief inspector, Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted’s annual reports became an important vehicle for airing difficult truths about our education system. It seems his successor, Amanda Spielman, remains committed to that tradition.
On Wednesday, Spielman will use her first annual report to highlight how our education system is, perversely, most failing the most disadvantaged groups of young people. Some schools manipulate admissions to keep out children with learning difficulties in the first place; others move them “off roll” by excluding them so their results do not count towards a school’s position in the league tables. These children often end up shunted into underperforming pupil referral units or being home-schooled by parents unfairly pressurised into doing so, despite being ill-equipped. Young people in juvenile offender institutions are similarly consigned to some of the poorest-quality education provision in the system. With enough political will, there are fixes. But these marginalised groups of children have long gone ignored by the system.
There will still be a debate about how regulators such as Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission come to judgments about schools and hospitals. But their inspections system gives them a unique overview and their independence means they can speak truth unto power in a way others may find difficult. Long may it continue.
